Nintendo Fanboy: Volume 2

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How should Nintendo market Metroid Prime?

By IGN Staff

Welcome to Nintendo® Fanboy, a column in which all of IGN's Nintendo®-loving editors, Matt Casamassina, Fran Mirabella, Craig Harris, Peer Schneider and Cory Lewis dish out their opinions on the hottest topics related to the company. From GameCube software on the way to Nintendo®'s strategic game plan, you can rest assured that at one point or another we'll cover it -- and we'll do so from a Nintendo® fan's perspective.

Nintendo® Fanboy is designed to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what the editors really think of the software and moves Nintendo® is making, and in a very laid back way. So grab a seat, kick up your feet and read on.

Peer responds: I think this goes back to what we talked about last time. Nintendo® was off to a good start with the GameCube commercials last year, but you can't change the consumer's image of the company with one set of commercials. "Playing Nintendo®" once meant playing videogames. Now it basically means, "what my kids are playing." Nintendo®, not just Metroid, has to be seen as cool.

My suggestion is to go with a campaign that introduces a slogan like: "This is Nintendo®?" Start the commercial off with footage of the original Metroid -- cue the latest version of the Metroid intro music. Have a movie-style narrator say: "In 1986, one woman redefined videogame shooters." Cut to Super Metroid. "In 1994, she returned in what many call the best game of all time." Then cut to the space station from the Metroid Prime intro -- without sound. Camera slowly zooms in on Samus. Narrator: "It's been eight years. She has changed. You have changed. WE have changed." Camera quickly goes into her helmet to switch to the first-person perspective. BOOOOM! Unleash 10 seconds of quick, cut-together scenes from the game that show off some of the coolest monsters and weapons, the visor effects, the morph ball -- loud stuff, a la the Alien trailer. "Metroid Prime" -- then flash some stats at the side that show "Dolby Surround," "HDTV-compatible," "Real-time lighting," "Bump mapping," and "Only on Nintendo® GameCube."

The visuals in Metroid Prime speak for themselves: this game is cool and very marketable

The idea is to capture the attention of geeks with the old footage, but also show mainstream gamers that this is not your little brother's Nintendo® anymore. Nintendo® has been way too conservative in touting what the system can do. Throw around the big words that older gamers like, even if many don't understand what they mean. Let them know that GameCube is cutting edge. Show them that Metroid is cutting edge.

Matt responds: I like the idea of the commercial. I would have suggested something entirely similar had you not beaten me to it. You bastard.

But I don't think that one more cool commercial is enough to change Nintendo®'s image, either. It needs to really build up to something big with Metroid Prime; really stress that the game is hip, cutting-edge, and designed for adult audiences. Perhaps a viral campaign -- something similar to the DataDyne-related Perfect Dark marketing -- could be effective. That, though, is only a starting point.

The simple truth is that it needs to spend some money. It can't whip up a half-assed attempt to sell the game and then rely on brand recognition to do the rest. As much as Nintendo® might want it to be, the Metroid franchise is not Mario or Pokemon -- it's a relative unknown to the mainstream audience.

Microsoft faced a similar hurdle when it brought out Halo and it succeeded far better than anybody could have dreamed. Why? It laid out the cash. It had a great product and it promoted the hell out of it. It turned the game into its flagship title and people bought it.

Nintendo® has the momentum. Metroid Prime at least comes from a partially recognized brand. To the hardcore audience, the franchise is one of the best. It also has massive hype. The game exceeded expectations at E3 2002 and has continually been named as one of the products to get later this year. So Nintendo® needs to capitalize on that.

Run the commercials. Hell, blitz the nation. Spend money. Spend money. Spend money. Nintendo® can afford it. Game over gimmicks: show gameplay footage, not Samus running around in a stuffed suit. The footage, with the right presentation, is all anybody needs.

Peer was definitely onto something when he noted that Nintendo® should stress the technology too. That's absolutely right. Prove that GameCube can compete. The biggest misconception in the industry is that GCN is less powerful than PS2. People are hesitant to buy into what they perceive to be the crappiest console. That's a lie Nintendo® itself nurtured as it refused to ever say otherwise, to always stay conservative. So squash it. Show the footage and say that it runs at 60 frames, that it runs in progressive scan, that it supports Dolby Pro Logic II.

Make Metroid Prime the flagship game. It's clear that the gaming audience is older so why not appeal to them? Mario will still sell. Pokemon will still sell. Metroid Prime, however, will sell systems. Offer it in the bundle. Make available a limited edition Samus colored gold GameCube and ship it with the game for a reasonable price. And again, spend some damn money to promote it.